A Discussion of Grounding

This is a discussion of grounding and centering that Mama Rose collected from users of ISCA BBS, I have borrowed it with her permission until I can get around to synthesizing a document on grounding and centering. Thanks to all who contributed!

Jun 6, 1994 00:26 from Engine Injun
GROUNDING

Castalyst's view is similar to mine: It is essentially a way to 'bring yourself home' as I like to say. Depending upon your intent or nature, you may 'ground' to any of the elements (5 for me). My nature combines mostly earth and fire. However, it isn't always apropriate to light a candle, or pull out my zippo to produce a flame to ground and focus with. (Comments about the zippo for flame can be sent to my Mail> and I'll explain there.) My prefered method of SERIOUS grounding, when I need to cleanse myself involves some visualization. (Grounding itself, is essentially mediation ... focusing your energies to relax yourself. As with anything, use whatever works for you.) Here's where my slight druidic tendancies come out: I put myself in a grassy field, or on a knoll. Then I begin a slow transformation into a tree...skin darkening and hardening...arms stretching up and becoming boughs...feet slipping into the earth becoming roots. As I continue to grow up/down and out, the leaves bud and grow, and from my center, I send down a tap root...to completely connect myself to the earth. By the time I'm finished, in my mind, I am a Great Oak...and am quite relaxed and re-energized with the healing energies I work with most.

Jun 6, 1994 07:40 from Wesa
Olen... You're describing _centering_, another very powerful meditation technique, and IMO the more difficult of the two (grounding and centering). Grounding involves connection with the earth, often to cleanse one's personal energy. Centering is the process/act/etc. of finding one's center of internal balance. (wish I was better at it.. grumble, grumble, gripe, gripe) :)

un 7, 1994 16:59 from Domenic
With all due respect for the numerous differences available in paganism and magickal practice, I'd like to *attempt* a clarification of grounding for the questioner. The most *usual* use for it is to drain excess energy away from participants in a magickal working. To my knowledge this is almost always done to earth. Trying to ground to fire would *probably* be like sticking your finger in a light socket or sitting on a stove burner...

Jun 7, 1994 17:28 from Rose
I would elaborate on that a little, Domenic: grounding assists in the flow of power in several ways: it allows the flowing of additional power from an outside source (the Earth, or the Universe), which is limited by the channel ourselves; it allows the drain-off of excess energies after use which otherwise might give the practitioner a bad case of nerves, or something; and it gives the practitioner a feeling of solidity, or connectedness, or rootedness, so that s/he does not get light-headed during practice.

Speaking of grounding to other elements, I usually "ground" to Water. For me, the perfect image to channel my thoughts into calm and peace and let excess energy drain away is that of sinking into a pool of water. Mentally, I look up at the blue sky and crisp white clouds above me, take in the living green colors of sunlight shining through the leaves all around the pool, and let myself exhale. I drift down from the warm surface water, my eyes still open to watch the silver bubbles rolling upward, and sink into quietness, through the thermocline into the cool bottom layers where I hang in dim stillness. There is water all around us, high in the air and deep within the Earth; its flow is the lifebeat of the planet's pulse; ocean depths are deeper than mountains are tall. Become the flow....

(looks around, blinking) Nothing like getting lost in your own words, is there? (grin) I use Earth to ground to as well, if I'm doing something like cloudbusting or trying to raise a wind: it's the best anchor there is. As always, use what works best for *you*.

Jun 8, 1994 18:00 from Sultan Mike
grounding:
hmm. i always pictured myself like a tree, branches reaching to the father and absorbing all the energy in the area, my roots dug deep and firmly into the mother, who gives me life, releasing all my energy to her. kinda like a tube fer excess energy (grounding to rid the area of excess energy after working magick)
meditative grounding:
i don't know, i just kinda focus on my yellow chakra, the one right below the heart - whatever it is called. focus on breathing or on a mantra, that seems to center my self fairly well. 8)
peace
sm

Jun 9, 1994 16:03 from Sugilax
*Sigh* This may sound a bit odd to some of you, but when I DO ground, which isn't very often, I actually tune in mainly to Air, believe it or not. I simply stand in as large an open area as I can find, away from as much city noise as possible. I stretch my arms out to the sides and relax. I feel the wind in my face, then against my skin, then it passes through me, carrying away all the energy that I have pent up and no longer wish to contain, good or bad. Usually, it takes away only as much as I want, then I simply lower my arms and stop.

Anyone else have any such experience with wind? Or is this completely nuts?

May the light illumine your path. . .

Jun 9, 1994 16:12 from Rose
That's really interesting, Sugilax; For a long time I had problems with multiple voices running in my head (you know, like the voice of Conscience, only contradictory?), and was unable to calm down sufficiently even to meditate until Public Radio began playing Music From the Hearts of Space. I think it degenerated later, but early on there was a particular piece which made me think of an isolated tower on a plain by an ocean, in moonlight; I was standing in the top story, which had open windows on all sides, and the gentle wind and the moonlight came through, and calmed down my brain. It was that same sensation of having the wind gently blow *through* me and carry away the buzzy bits.

Jun 9, 1994 16:17 from Sugilax
So it's not just me. . . That's a good thing. The main difference is, I think, that I use it to dump ENERGY as well as stress, love, hate, anger, intense joy, when it's too much for me. . . I don't feel bad about releasing it to the wind, simply because I dump good emotions and energies along with all the negative energies I release. Also, moonlight and the sounds of rain or the ocean, even by themselves have a WONDERFULLY calming effect on me. Danger of that is that I usually get nostalgic, then mushy, then emotional. . . Basically, not the way to go during a party or something. . . *Grin*

Jun 9, 1994 18:27 from Domenic
[...]
---->Rose
:) Thanks for the addition. Very true, of course. I was mainly concerned about the grounding to fire idea which I *don't* think would be a good idea for beginners. I tend to think of part of what you said as more in terms of the centering process but it all blends together. I kind of like the idea of grounding to water that was put forth... it could be interesting. 'Grounding' or 'connecting' to fire might also be useful as an energy supplier. Hmmm... the concept of grounding fire to water comes to mind... Tea, anyone? :-))))
----> Otter Pop

Jun 9, 1994 23:26 from Scorpius
First some thoughts on grounding>
I seem to have a relatively close bond with each of the three elements -- oops, thats "four" -- Spirit I try not to touch because I feel that it too directly connected with peaple, and I do not want my manipulations to affect inocent bystanders. I find that I have to ground myself periodically or I start feeling really isolated -- almost lonely; like some part of me is missing. I seem to have this way of thinking in which my emotions are separated into extent and intensity. For example I can be slightly happy, but it will be the predominant emotion because its intensity overshadows all other emotions. Or I can be extremely sad, but have that emotion suppressed by other, more intense emotions. When I ground for energy transferal I try to change only the intensity of the emotion, not the extent of it. If I were extremely depressed, I would try to remove some of the energy which is fueling my depression, but I try not to transfer any of the actual depression to the element(s). Likewise, if I am trying to increase pleasant or productive power, I try not to take away from those energies from the element(s) I am working with. In general I try to give more than I take. IMO the elements are not simple filtering systems into which we but the old energy and draw forth the clean.

As far as which element I use. I am told that salt water works quite well (preferably naturally salty water) also mineral waters and hotsprings. All of these have some connection with other elements. While I have never tried grounding in them, they do "feel" right. I like to use strong winds, especially those created by storms -- this combines air, water, and fire. Fast flowing, freshwater springs are also quite good; I can never get quite the same effect from standing water such as a lake or large pool might provide. Earth, of course, provides a rather good connection (the farther from polution, the better). But fire is a rather perculiar one for me. I seem to be able to use fire in almost any surrounding and nearly any source from candle to camp fire to sunset. I probably have the easiest time getting rid of energy and receiving energy from fire, but at the same time I have almost no control over the energy exchange. Fire leaves me more relaxed while the other elements leave me with a feeling of exhilaration. Though I think that one of the most powerful bonds I ever formed for grounding was in a forest enshrouded in fog. I have read that fire is my element (perhaps this is related to my experiences wit it).

Shadows color the dark, Scorpius.